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Canon City Democrat challenges Suthers

A Canon City Democrat said he wants to be an activist attorney general, pursuing polluters, insurance companies and “anyone who would do Colorado harm.”

Dan Slater, 37, the first vice president of the Colorado Democratic Party, said he planned to knock on doors in all of Colorado’s 64 counties as he runs against the incumbent Republican, John Suthers.

Without saying he would pattern the attorney general’s office in any particular fashion, Slater said he admired the way Andrew Cuomo handles his office in New York, Lisa Madigan in Illinois and Gary King in New Mexico, citing them as the kinds of activist attorneys general he would emulate.

“The differences between myself and the incumbent could not be more clear,” Slater said.

The subprime lending crisis, Enron and the swindlings by Bernie Madoff could have been avoided with “better activism by regulators and law enforcement,” Slater told about 20 supporters Friday during his announcement at Traders Coffee & Tea Co., 666 Patterson Road.

Suthers last year declined to defend Gov. Bill Ritter in a lawsuit brought by Mesa County over the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. Slater said he would have taken the case, noting “Gov. Ritter was in a difficult financial position” at the time.

Slater emphasized later to an audience member that he is a supporter of gun rights and received a B-plus rating in a bid for the state Senate from the National Rifle Association.

Slater and his wife, Brandy, are the parents of four children, and he was a leader of the effort to attract last year’s Democratic National Convention to Denver, where he was an Obama delegate for Colorado.